The blog contains articles by the author which appear in various newspapers in Kashmir and are also available on the website: www.kashmirfirst.com

Wednesday, October 5, 2016

The War Hysteria!

The persons creating the War Hysteria should first get educated about
the consequences of a present day war especially between the nuclear
armed countries!

After
the attack on the Uri Army camp in Kashmir, and the subsequent “Surgical
Strikes”, an orchestrated War Hysteria has been created throughout the country
which has been given a boost by the corporate media by turning its studios into
virtual War Rooms. People have even been advocating the use of nuclear weapons.
In fact, some people from the Pakistani side have openly threatened the use of
nuclear weapons. It is easy to talk about war and use of various kinds of
weapons siting in comfortable air conditioned studios. It is only the people
living in border areas who have been again displaced in anticipation of hostilities
that know the impact and the consequences of a conventional war, forget for the
time being a nuclear war!

The
villagers living close to the border have been forced to leave their crops
unharvested and take shelter in interior areas because of the threat of war
looming over their heads. India and Pakistan have fought four wars since their
creation as two separate countries in 1947. The wars of 1947 and 1999 were
limited to the borders of J & K while as the wars of 1965 and 1971 were
total wars all along their borders. In earlier wars, the most affected were
always the border residents. There were some casualties due to bombing raids
conducted on air bases, bridges, and other military targets. But now the two
countries have graduated to the highest level. With missiles and some of these
capable of carrying nukes, it is a different scenario. Even the rockets and
missiles possessed by both sides even if carrying non-nuclear warheads can
destroy entire localities. The use of nukes of which both possess more than 200
would be the Armageddon not only for the sub-continent but the entire South
Asia. There would also be disastrous effects on the rest of the planet.

To
give an idea of a nuclear explosion effects, it would be interesting to take a
quote from the AtomicArchive.Com. “Nuclear
explosions produce both immediate and delayed destructive effects. Blast, thermal
radiation, and prompt ionizing radiation cause significant destruction within
seconds or minutes of a nuclear detonation. The delayed effects, such as
radioactive fallout and other possible environmental effects, inflict damage
over an extended period ranging from hours to years.Most damage comes from the explosive
blast. The shock wave of air radiates outward, producing sudden changes in air
pressure that can crush objects, and high winds that can knock objects down. In
general, large buildings are destroyed by the change in air pressure, while
people and objects such as trees and utility poles are destroyed by the wind. Approximately
35 percent of the energy from a nuclear explosion is an intense burst of
thermal radiation, i.e., heat. The effects are similar to the effect of a
two-second flash from an enormous sunlamp. Since the thermal radiation travels
at roughly the speed of light, the flash of light and heat precedes the blast
wave by several seconds, just as lightning is seen before thunder is heard.
Next is the “Fallout”. Fallout radiation is received from particles that are
made radioactive by the effects of the explosion, and subsequently distributed
at varying distances from the site of the blast”. Another quote from Scroll, “If India and Pakistan fought a war
detonating 100 nuclear warheads (around half of their combined arsenal), each
equivalent to a 15-kiloton Hiroshima bomb, more than 21 million people will be
directly killed, about half the world’s protective ozone layer would be
destroyed, and a “nuclear winter” would cripple the monsoons and agriculture
worldwide”. The warmongers in the studios including some
retired generals need to be shown the Hollywood movie “The Day After” to fully
gauge the effects of a nuclear war if it breaks out now in the sub-continent. Unfortunately,
if one follows the confrontation track with some “surgical” or “non-surgical”
strikes, there is every possibility of quick escalation which can end in a
nuclear clash!

One
wonders why these two poor countries with teeming millions below poverty line
should think of total destruction and annihilation. The answer is the presence
of the “Beneficiaries of Conflict” within these countries and the “Merchants of
Death” from abroad selling their wares to them! The total armament business in
the world exceeds $ 1000 billion and India is the largest buyer. Similarly,
Pakistan spends a major chunk of its budget on defence especially buying of
armaments from abroad. For these “Merchants of Death” selling their wares to
them, peace in the world means lesser jobs back home! This was even mentioned
by Lockheed in one of its posters to its employees! Unfortunately, both the
countries are not really ruled by the genuine and sincere people. One is an
“Upper Caste Hindu Corporate Republic” as described by Arundhati Roy and the
other is the Country of “My Feudal Lord”! A coterie of feudal land lords! One
fails to understand why don’t the leaders on two sides think of the teeming
millions living in abject poverty? Had the money being spent on armaments on
two sides been invested in ameliorating the lot of the poor, these two
countries would have been the best welfare states!

Both
the countries for all their differences and conflicts have the “Whipping Boy”
of Kashmir. For last 70 years Kashmiris are being used as guinea pigs by the two
countries to uphold their conflicting ideologies of the so called “Secularism”
and the “Two Nation Theory”. It is the worst misfortune of Kashmiris that they
have got entangled in this mess for no fault of theirs. For last three months
Kashmir is under total siege. People have been deprived of the basic human
rights by the use of the most brutal and the harshest use of force. The “War
Hysteria” is being created deliberately to divert attention from the issues
confronting the two sides. India is creating a hue and cry to drown the woes of
Kashmiris while as Pakistanis facing terrorism in every nook and corner, want
to muzzle their own internal political problems. The conflict over Kashmir, an
extremely sensitive emotional issue, suits both sides. The only sufferers in
this match are the Kashmiris in particular and the millions of poor on the two
sides of the divide. It is the right time now to end all “Surgical” and “Non-Surgical”
strikes; bring down the “War Hysteria” and save Kashmir by giving relief to Kashmiris
by restoring their fundamental human rights. The only choice is to hold an
unconditional dialogue among all stakeholders to sort out the basic political
problem once and for all. The alternative is a mass suicide!